The Greatest Books of All Time on History

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3223 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
3238 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3239 Hms Ulysses Alistair MacLean 1955 Scottish English
3242 The Great Bridge David McCullough 1972 American English
3248 Memoirs of Cardinal De Retz Cardinal de Retz 1717 French French
3249 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
3256 The Theogony Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
3258 Killers Of The Flower Moon David Grann 2017 American English
3266 Old Mortality Sir Walter Scott 1816 Scottish English
3274 Iron & Silk Mark Salzman 1986 American English
3277 The Polish Rider Antonio Muñoz Molina 1991 Spanish Spanish
3278 Up in the Old Hotel Joseph Mitchell 1992 American English
3280 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 1992 Cuban Spanish
3288 Stories of Washington Irving Washington Irving 1820 American English
3296 Cyropaedia Xenophon -370 Greek Ancient greek
3299 The Gallic War And Other Writings Gaius Julius Caesar -58 Roman Latin
3298 The Dead Sea Scrolls Unknown -150 Multiple Hebrew, aramaic, greek
3300 The Works Of Philodemus Philodemus -50 Greek Greek
3301 The Red Record Ida B. Wells 1895 American English
3301 Baburnama Zahir Uddin Muhammad Babur 1530 Baburnama Chagatai turkish
3304 Personal Recollections Of Joan Of Arc Mark Twain 1896 American English
3305 The Silmarillion J. R. R. Tolkien 1977 British English
3312 Into The Heart Of Borneo Redmond O'Hanlon 1984 British English
3324 Thomas of Reading, Or, The Sixe Worthie Yeomen of the West Thomas Deloney 1599 British English
3324 I Thought of Daisy Edmund Wilson 1929 American English
3324 House in the Uplands Erskine Caldwell 1946 American English
3324 Journey to the Alcarria Camilo José Cela 1948 Spanish Spanish
3324 Forever a Stranger Hella S. Haasse 1949 Dutch Dutch
3381 Der Laden Erwin Strittmatter 1983 German German
3385 Wandering On The Way Zhuangzi, Victor H. Mair -369 Chinese Classical chinese
3386 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3391 Napoleon Emil Ludwig 1926 German German
3399 Portrait Of A Marriage Nigel Nicolson 1973 British English
3400 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3406 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3415 Hanna's Daughters Marianne Fredriksson 1994 Swedish Swedish
3423 The Back Room Carmen Martín Gaite 1978 Spanish Spanish
3422 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3424 Common Sense Thomas Paine 1776 British English
3428 Count Julian Juan Goytisolo 1970 Spanish Spanish
3427 The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi 1944 Canadian English
3440 Ideas Have Consequences Richard M. Weaver 1948 American English
3444 The Bitter Glass Eilís Dillon 1958 Irish English
3451 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
3455 Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy 1956 American English
3468 The Story Of English Robert McCrum 1986 British English
3471 The Armada Garrett Mattingly 1959 American English
3472 We Do Not Part Han Kang 2021 Korean Korean
3475 The Campaign of the Marne Sewell Tyng 1927 American English
3476 The Black Obelisk Erich Maria Remarque 1956 German German
3479 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3490 Democracy and Leadership Irving Babbitt 1924 American English
3495 The Return Of Martin Guerre Natalie Zemon Davis 1983 Unknown English
3496 The Thin Red Line James Jones 1962 American English
3499 Reflections of a Russian Statesman Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev 1898 Russian Russian
3511 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3515 In the American Grain William Carlos Williams 1925 American English
3517 Bureaucracy Ludwig von Mises 1944 Austrian English
3520 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3521 Balzac Stefan Zweig 1946 Austrian German
3522 Bad Blood John Carreyrou 2018 American English
3523 The Good Society Walter Lippmann 1937 American English
3524 Strange Defeat Marc Bloch 1946 French French
3525 Looking Back Norman Douglas 1933 British English
3528 Love in the Western World Denis de Rougemont 1939 Swiss French
3530 Behemoth Franz Neumann 1942 German English
3532 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3536 The Death of Woman Wang MMP Jonathan Spence 1978 American English
3550 The Improvement of Human Reason Ibn Tufayl 1170 Arabic Arabic
3556 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
3560 Insight Bernard Lonergan 1957 Canadian English
3564 The Eighth Life Nino Haratishvili 2014 Georgian German
3573 Notes from No Man's Land Eula Biss 2009 American English
3577 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson 1995 British English
3579 Flowering Judas and Other Stories Katherine Anne Porter 1930 American English
3589 Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson 2014 American English
3600 Debt David Graeber 2011 American English
3604 Limonov Emmanuel Carrère 2011 French French
3617 The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe 1979 American English
3620 Correspondence Voltaire 1751 French French
3623 Sepharad Antonio Muñoz Molina 2001 Spanish Spanish
3626 Adventures On The Wine Route Kermit Lynch 1988 American English
3630 Really The Blues Bernard Wolfe, Milton Mezz Mezzrow 1946 American English
3630 The Happy Island Dawn Powell 1938 American English
3637 Letters from an American Farmer J. Crevecoeur 1782 American English
3637 Homo Ludens Johan Huizinga 1938 Dutch Dutch
3637 Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial Sir Thomas Browne 1658 British English
3637 The Portable Faulkner William Faulkner 1946 American English
3637 The Life of the Bee Maurice Maeterlinck 1901 Belgian French
3637 The Battle with the Slum Jacob A. Riis 1902 Danish English
3637 The House on Henry Street Lillian D. Wald 1915 American English
3637 The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens Lincoln Steffens 1931 American English
3637 Charter of the United Nations United Nations 1945 Multiple English
3637 Why I Am Not a Christian Bertrand Russell 1927 British English
3637 Woman Suffrage and Politics Carrie Chapman Catt 1923 American English
3637 Armenian Atrocities Arnold J. Toynbee 1915 British English
3637 War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Sassoon 1919 British English
3637 Memoirs Of A Revolutionist Vera Figner 1920 Russian Russian
3637 Oh, These Times Catherine the Great 1790 Russian Unknown
3637 Days In The Caucasus Banine 1945 French French
3637 Childe Harold Of Dysna Moyshe Kulbak 1939 Belarusian Yiddish
3637 Notes From The Blockade Lydia Ginzburg 1960 Russian Russian
3637 The Memoirs Of Princess Dashkova Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova 1840 Russian Russian
3637 Van Loon's Lives Hendrik Willem van Loon 1942 Dutch English
3637 Being Geniuses Together Robert McAlmon 1938 American English
3637 The Endless Adventure F. S. Oliver 1930 British English
3637 The Invisible Flag Peter Bamm 1952 German German
3637 The Jazz Book Joachim-Ernst Berendt 1953 German German
3637 The Tomb Of Tutankhamun Howard Carter 1954 British English
3637 Gods, Graves, And Scholars C. W. Ceram 1949 German German
3637 Jew Süss Lion Feuchtwanger 1925 German German
3637 Die Homosexualität Des Mannes Und Des Weibes Magnus Hirschfeld 1920 German German
3637 The Bible As History Werner Keller 1955 German German
3637 The Language Of The Third Reich Victor Klemperer 1947 German German
3637 From Caligari To Hitler Siegfried Kracauer 1947 German German
3637 Child Of The Revolution Wolfgang Leonhard 1955 German German
3637 Jürg Jenatsch Conrad Ferdinand Meyer 1876 Swiss German
3637 Scenes Of Bohemian Life Henri Murger 1845 French French
3637 The Prophecies Nostradamus 1555 French French
3637 The Four Books On Architecture Andrea Palladio 1570 Italian Italian